Information

Angus MacKay states that this tune was composed by an unknown piper in honour of a lady named Isabel MacKay who was the subject of Rob Donn MacKay's song of the same name.  Isabel and her husband died in 1747 just one year after their marriage.  Angus MacKay has a totally different tune called The Battle of Maolroy.  This battle was fought between the MacIntoshes and the MacDonald's of Keppoch but so far as historical legend is concerned this conflict would appear to have little or nothing to do with Isabel MacKay

Judges Note 2013

The main sources of the tune are Angus Mackay's published book and Donald MacDonald's MS (where it has the title 'Battle of Maolroy) and it appears in many other collections. It is unlikely to be heard significantly differently from the PS version, which is essentially that of Angus Mackay. In Mackay's book, there is a minor stylistic difference between the ground and thumb variations in the treatment of the Es which are shown as cadences in PS 6, but given note values in Mackay.

Some suggestions regarding the tempo of the variations and timing of some quavers are given in 'Further Sidelights on the Kilberry Book of Ceol Mor'.

There are different ways of timing the crunluath doubling, some preferring a smooth five pulse rhythm while others will give strong emphasis to the theme notes and shorten the intervening notes.

Donald MacDonald's version is a simpler affair with a ground and first variation, but no thumb variation, while the taorluath and crunluath doublings do not change from the singlings except in the last bar of each line. This version is unlikely to find favour with competitors.

Available in:

PS book 6 Kilberry Binneas

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Sidelights to Kilberry V2 Isabel MacKay
John Smith MS Isabel MacKay